Aman Jain Ethics Short Notes and Links

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 16

Ethics

Syllabus
Ethics at the Workplace & Corporate Gov:
1. Meaning of ethics.
2. Why ethical problems occur in business.

Theories of ethics:
3. Utilitarianism:
3.1. weighing social cost and benefits,
3.2. rights and duties,
3.3. Justice and fairness,
3.4. ethics of care,
3.5.integrating utility, rights, justice and caring,

An alternative to moral principles:


4.1 virtue ethics,
4.2. teleological theories,
4.3.egoism theory,
4.4.relativism theory,

Moral issues in business:

5.1 Ethics in Compliance, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, etc.


5.2 Ethical Principles in Business: introduction, Org. Structure, and Ethics,
5.3 Role of Board of Directors,
5.4 Best Practices in Ethics Programme,
5.5 Code of Ethics, Code of Conduct, whistleblower etc.

​1. Meaning of ethics. (व्यवहार) उचित-अनुचित का विचार


🔹character.
The word ethics is derived from the Greek word ethikos meaning custom or

🔹 E​ thics is a conception of right and wrong behavior, defining for us when our actions
are moral & when they are immoral.

🔹standards
Ethics is the discipline that examines ones moral standards or the moral
of a society.

🔹andIt conduct.
is that branch of philosophy which is concerned with human character

Importance Of BUSINESS ETHICS:


It facilitates and promotes good to society, improves profitability, fosters
business relations, and employee productivity, reduces criminal penalties
against public authorities and regulators, protects business against
unscrupulous employees and competitors, protects employees from
harmful actions by their employer.

MCQ

2. Why ethical problems occur in business.

Ethical problems occur in business for many reasons:

🔹welfare
Personal gain: People will be sometimes greedy and put down their own
ahead of all others, not bothered about the welfare of the fellow
employees, the company or society. this will cause ethical problems.

🔹a company
Clash of personal values and organizational goals:
if it pursues goals or uses methods that are not acceptable to some of
its employees will create ethical conflicts in business.

🔹 Competitive pressures:
when companies compete for a similar product , they sometimes engage in
unethical activities in order to wipe out a competitor from the market.

🔹ethical
Cross cultural contradictions:
problems occur when certain corporations cannot do business at home,
would try to enter other societies where ethical standards differ.
3. Utilitarianism (एक नैतिक सिद्धांत)
(Weighing Social Costs And Benefits):

🔸policies
Utilitarianism is a general term for any view that holds that actions and
should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they will
impose on society.

🔸benefits
The right action or policy is the one that will produce the greatest net
or the lowest net costs (when all alternatives have only net costs).

🔸theAccording to concept of utilitarianism philosophy, the right Ethical decision is


one that produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

🔸somehow
The principle assumes that all the benefits and costs of an action can be
measured and thereby determine which action produces the greatest
total benefits or the lowest total costs.

MCQ

RIGHTS AND DUTIES:

🔸exercised
Rights and duties are correlated terms i.e without right ,duty cannot be
and without duty,the right cannot be observed.

🔸provided
For e.g if I have a right to an education, then I have a justified claim to be
with an education by society.

🔸Right is an individuals' entitlement to something.


🔸interests
Rights enable the individual to choose freely whether to pursue certain
or activities and to protect those choices.

🔸(1) Types of rights:


Moral Right or Human Rights,
(2) Constitutional or Legal Rights.

🔸system
Legal Rights: are limited to a particular jurisdiction within which the legal
is in force.
🔸human
Moral rights: are based on moral norms and principles that specify that all
beings are permitted /empowered to do something or are entitled to have
something done for them.

🔸 Moral rights are same for all individuals.


🔸Negative
Moral rights can be grouped into two broad categories:
rights and positive rights.

🔸to doNegative rights such as the right to privacy, the right not be killed or the right
what one wants with ones property are rights that protect some form of
human freedom or liberty. Negative rights imposes a negative duty on all others –
the
duty not to interfere in certain activities of the person who holds a given right.

🔸dutyPositive
of
rights are positive in the sense that some agents have the positive

providing the holder of the right with whatever he or she needs to freely pursue
his or her interests.
Advocated by Immanuel Kant and lock: ethical decisions should protect
the legal and moral rights that an individual is entitled to.

JUSTICE AND FAIRNESS

🔸moreJustice means giving each person what he or she deserves or in


traditional terms giving each person his or her due.

🔸 Justice usually has been used with reference to a standard of rightness.


🔸 Fairness often has been used with regard to an ability to judge
without reference to one’s feelings or interests.

🔸justice,
Justice theories advocate that all persons should be guided by fairness,
equity,and by a sense of impartiality.

🔸equal
Justice is the philosophy used in making ethical decisions to ensure the
distribution of benefits and burdens.

🔸rulesA justice decision is one that is fair , impartial, reasonable in the light of the
that apply to the situation.
🔸kindsKinds of justice: The Ancient Greek Philosopher Aristotle distinguished three
of justice
(1) Distributive Justice,
(2) Compensatory Justice,
(3) Retributive Justice.

🔸🔸 Distributive justice deals with the distribution of benefits and burdens.


Compensatory Justice deals with the matter of compensating persons

🔸Retributive justice involves punishment to wrong doers.


for
wrongs done to them.

ETHICS OF CARE
Caring for others is the corner stone of good ethical practice.

🔸persons
This is the ethics that deals with caring for the concrete wellbeing of those
who are near to us.

🔸particular
The view that we have an obligation to exercise special care towards those
persons With whom we have valuable close relationships, particularly
relations of dependency is a key concept in an ethics of care.’

INTEGRATING UTILITY, RIGHTS, JUSTICE AND CARING

🔸attain
Utilitarian standards must be used when we do not have the resources to
every ones objectives so we are forced to consider the net social benefits
and social costs consequent on the actions by which we can attain the objectives.

🔸individuals
Our moral judgments are also partially based on standards that specify how
must be treated or respected. These policies will substantially affect
the welfare and freedom of specifiable individuals.
→ Moral reasoning of this type forces consideration of whether the behavior
respects the basic rights of the individuals involved and whether the behavior is
consistent with one’s agreements and special duties.

🔸benefits
Our moral judgments are also based on standards of justice that indicate how
and burdens should be distributed among the members of a group.
These sorts of standards must be employed when evaluating action whose
distributive effects differ.
→ The moral reasoning on which such judgments are based will incorporate
considerations concerning whether the behavior distributes benefits and
burdens equally or in accordance with the needs,abilities,as well as extent of
their wrong doing.
🔸→ Standards
Our moral judgments are also based on standards of caring .
of caring are essential when moral questions arise that involve
persons embedded in a web of relationships ,particularly persons with whom
one has close relationships.

VIRTUE (सदाचार) ETHICS


(ARISTOTLE’S NICOMACHIEN ETHICS)

🔸 Utilitarian ethics address the question: what actions are right?


Virtue Ethics asks instead: What kind of persons we should be?

🔸person
This theory holds that Ethics should develop character traits or virtues in a
so that person will do what is morally right.

🔸action.
Aristotle defines Virtue as a character trait that manifests itself in habitual

→Honesty for e.g. cannot consist in telling the truth once,It is trait of a person
who tells the truth as a general practice.
→A virtue is something we admire in a person;
→A Virtue is an excellence of some kind that is worth having its own sake
honesty is a trait that everyone needs for good life.

🔸herVirtues are those traits that everyone needs for the good ones no matter his or
specific situation.

🔸thisThe virtuous person is the ethical person.Aristotle was famous supporter of


view. Aristotle felt that virtue ethics was the way to attain true happiness.

MCQ

TELEOLOGICAL THEORY

🔸theory.
Greek philosophers, in particular Aristotle, popularized the teleological

🔸Thus,
Teleology is derived from telos which means the end or consequences.
the theory of consequentialism is directly associated with the teleological
theory.
🔸other
At the one extreme of the teleological theme, there may be egoism and at the
extreme, there is utilitarianism as suggested by Bentham and J.S. Mill.

🔸choose
Utilitarianism provides a criterion for the concrete decision-making process to
an action or policy.
🔸individual
"Egoism" which is a form of teleology accepts any decision which produces
gain or benefit.
→These benefits include pleasure, power, name and fame.
→An egoist will choose a situation which will increase his personal gain or
satisfy his ego.
→The basis of egoism is self-interest. Many people are of the opinion that an
egoistic person or organization is governed by self-interest.
→They will go to any extent to maximize their gains and objective functions.
→They are short-sighted and unethical in principle.
→However, there is another variety of egoism known as enlightened egoism
which is socially better than pure egoism.
→ Enlightened egoism takes into account a long-run perspective and also allows
for the welfare of people and society, but in every case, the self-interest remains
the primary consideration.

MCQ

Ethical Relativism (ER)

🔸standards
ER believes that the only criteria for judging right and wrong are the local
and practices. Such a standard of judgment is too constricted.

🔸fundamental
ER tends to believe that the moral standards of a particular society are the
basis of judging it or for subsequent policy actions.

🔸others.
If injustice prevails in a particular country, it should not be the yardstick for
For instance, the argument that the Indian caste system is good because it
is steeped in tradition and hence should be emulated elsewhere, is objectionable.

🔸standards
ER does not lay emphasis on the universal moral standard. In fact, some moral
are unchanged, & live on.

MCQ

Moral issues in business:

🔸Business
What Is Business Ethics?
ethics is the application of the principles of ethics in the realm of
business, trade and commerce.

🔸Business
Why Business Ethics?
ethics is necessary to uphold the interests of consumers, shareholders,
workers, suppliers, distributors and investors.
Business ethics is necessary to remind the business firm that it is the moral duty
of the firm as a part of society to undertake some social responsibilities.

Ethics in Compliance
Ethics means doing what is right regardless of what the law says
It’s entirely possible to be ethical without being compliant. Ethics is proactive, rather than
reactive as compliance is. Our personal values system, including our character, values and
core principles, guide us when we make decisions.
Ethical Issues In FINANCE And A/Cing

🔸Finance is the lifeblood of business and with the management of finance,


accounting is invariably associated. Financial management is concerned with many related
activities like investment, financial decision-making and also decisions on dividend payments.

🔺
Unethical Financial Practices

🔺🔺
company cooks the financial data and manipulates them to suit the requirements.
share prices are artificially raised.
Insider Trading:- People having inside information buy most of the shares of a

🔺🔺
company when the conditions are very favourable
Merger of companies may be a financial stunt.
companies open accounts in different banks to avoid taxes.

Unethical Practices in HRM


There are rampant unethical practices in HRM. Some of those practices are listed
as under:
● Many firms use discriminatory policies in recruitment, promotion, wages
payment and even in work allocation. This includes gender and caste or religious
discrimination.
● Firms often do not care for safety, health, job satisfaction and comfortable
working environment.
● HRM policies may be absent or biased with respect to promotion, recruitment,
reward and punishment.
● Workers’ rights and unionism are not looked upon favourably by employers.
● While practicing downsizing and lay-offs, sufficient prior notice is not given to
employees.
● Many firms are engaged in exploiting workers by giving them unjustifiably
lower wages.
● Sometimes privacy is not allowed and this goes against the women workers.
● Forced labour and child labourers are used by many firms.
● Hiring and firing policy is extended too far to threaten the workers.
● Sexual harassment prevails in many
firms in both overt and covert forms.

What is Marketing Ethics?

● Honesty in all marketing transactions


● Responsibility for the goods sold
● Openness in all dealing
● Fairness in all the deals (absence of cheating or deception at any stage)
● Respect for human dignity
● Disclosure of info regarding the product
● Selling products that are not harmful or injurious.

Unethical Practices in Marketing

Products: These are not always safe and harmless. They may be adulterated,
qualitatively poor and may contain some substances whose effect on health may
be dangerous.

Pricing: Dealers and manufacturers often charge either too high (skimming or
gouging) or too low (predatory or penetrating) pricing. There are many methods
of price fixation.

Packaging: Does not often mention the safety instruction or level and no expiry
date. Packaging may be done with harmful materials like plastics.

What is Organization Ethics ?

🔸The way an organization should respond to external environment refers to organization


ethics.

🔸No organization should depend on unfair means to earn money.


🔸Organizations must not discriminate any employee on the grounds of gender, physical
appearance, age or family background.

🔸Organization must not exploit any of the employees.


🔸Organization must take care of the safety of the employees.
Role of Board of Directors

🔸collectively
Section 2(6) of the Indian Companies Act 1956 states that directors are
referred to as “Board of Directors” or simply the “Board"

🔸theBoard of Directors are appointed to act on behalf of the shareholders to run


day to day affairs of the business whilst meeting the interests of its
shareholders and other stakeholders.
QUALITIES OF BOARD
The qualities of the Board can be exhibited by focusing on its key function areas:
(i) Estb. of vision, mission and values.
(ii) Set strategy and structure;
(iii) Delega. of authority & responsibility to management;
(iv) Exercise accountability to shareholders and be responsible to
relevant stakeholders;
(v) Ensure compliance with laws and regulations.

ROLE OF BOARD

🔸The Board should meet regularly, retain full and effective control over the company and
monitor the executive management.

🔸Involvement in employment and dismissal of the CEO.


🔸BODs promote overall interests of the company and its stakeholders are of paramount
importance.

🔸BODs should monitor corporate performance against strategic business plans, take proper
measures at the proper time.

MCQ

Best Practices in Ethics Programme

1.) Identify and Renew Company Values

Ethics are most effective when perceived by employees to be “values-driven,” rather than simply
compliance-driven and values-based programs are most effective in reducing unethical behavior,
strengthening employee commitment and making employees more willing to deliver bad news to
managers.
2.) Secure Visible Commitment From Senior Managers.
Senior managers should participate in training sessions, make ethics a regular element in
speeches and presentations, and align their own behavior with company standards.

3.) Engage the Board of Directors

Engage directors in the ethics process by instituting a board ethics committee or by placing ethics
on the board agenda as a regular item for discussion.

4.) Develop an Ethics Code or Code of Business Conduct

Comprehensive codes are aligned with company values and all applicable laws.
5.) Build Ethics Into Mission and Vision Statements

Many companies build ethical values and goals into their mission and/or vision statements.

6.) Integrate Ethics Into all Aspects of Company Communications

Leverage existing company infrastructure to demonstrate to employees that ethics is an integral


part of all operations and decision making.

What Is a Code of Ethics?


A code of ethics is a guide of principles designed to help professionals conduct business
honestly and with integrity.

A code of ethics also referred to as an "ethical code," may encompass areas such as business
ethics, a code of professional practice and an employee code of conduct.
MCQ

Code of conduct
A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper
practices of an individual party or an organisation.

Company core values and vision


Bans on illegal activities: activities including smoking, drinking, foul language
Internet usage: Cyber security; corporate email; social media
Discrimination and harrassment
Confidentiality procedures
Dress code
Community involvement
Gift and entertainment policies
Meal and rest break policies
Relationships at workplace
Violation of the code of conduct
Compliance program

MCQ
Whistle Blowing

A whistleblower is a person, usually an employee, who exposes information or activity within


a private, public, or government organization that is deemed illegal, illicit, unsafe, or a waste,
fraud, or abuse of taxpayer funds.

MCQ

Descriptive Questions

1. (a) State the three basic values,


universal in nature, in the context of
RBI Grade B officer and bring out
their importance.

Ans.
Values are essential components of organisational culture and are instrumental in
determining, guiding and informing behaviour. For government officials adherence to high-
level public service values can generate substantial public trust and confidence. Some basic,
universal values include:

1. Integrity and Honesty: Integrity is putting the obligations of Organization's service above
your own personal interests. Grade B officers should be guided solely by public interest in their
official decision making and not by any financial or other consideration either in respect of
themselves, their families or their friends.

2. Objectivity, Impartiality and Political Neutrality: While they are carrying out their official
work, including functions like procurement, recruitment, delivery of their services etc. He/She
should take decisions based on merit and free from any partisan/political consideration.

3. Commitment to Public Service: officers should deliver services in a fair, effective,


impartial and courteous manner to serve the larger public interest. The dedication to the
public welfare cause is crucial.

Integrity, dedication and devotion to duty, impartiality, political neutrality, anonymity,


accountability, exemplary behaviour etc. are said to be the hallmarks of an RBI Grade B officer.

2. Distinguish between “Code of ethics” and “Code of conduct” with suitable examples.

Ans. Code of conduct


A legally enforceable code of conduct sets out the standards of behaviour expected of those
working in the job/duty.
In India, the current set of ethical norms are the Conduct Rules, contained in the Central
Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964 and analogous rules applicable to members of the All India
Services or employees of various State Governments.
Like: Maintaining Integrity is a norm mentioned there which is directed towards cataloguing
specific activities deemed desirable for government servants. These conduct rules do not
constitute a code of ethics.

Code of Ethics

Such a code contains a declaration of values for the officers, reflecting public expectations and
the relationship between the Officer and his Organisation.

Q. Examine how an organisation’s work culture impacts or imparts ethics towards


society at large. (250 words)

Approach

Write about the Work culture of an organisation.


Explain the factors influencing the ethics of society at large.
Define work culture and explain with examples of how it impacts societal ethics.

Lukmaan Ethics Case Studies 1


Drishti- Case Studies Ethics

Insights- Case Studies Ethics/

References

Current Affairs

You might also like